Saturday, February 25, 2017

Just because we understand what you’re saying – doesn’t make the English you’re speaking correct!
Why won't we make the effort to speak good English?

If you speak Manglish or "broken" English in the workplace, I really would be distressed.

Take for example, a wife who asked her hubby for an 18-carat necklace.

He heard the request alright (18-'carrot' necklace) and took it literally:

In fact, in 2013, the Malaysian government announced plans to make it compulsory for all students to pass English as a subject in a major high school examination by 2016.

Two years later. these plans were shelved after the country's Education Ministry tested out what would happen if they did. They learned that about 25 percent of the students would fail SPM because of the English requirement.We are already nearly two months into 2017 and still, nothing has happened.Many Malaysians have some sort of grasp of the language but communicating confidently continues to be a big problem. PM Najib Razak had said: "...Like it or not, English is a prerequisite in this world. So we cannot be emotional anymore; we cannot feel that we don't need to learn English".

Sadly, many Malaysians don't care. If they do, they would have done something about it and start working on their English.

On Thursday, I was in Menara OCBC in KL’s Jalan Tun Perak. I was attending the OCBC Toastmasters meeting where I took up two roles, i.e. Speech evaluator and General Evaluator.

The former senior staff sculptor for the Walt Disney Company in Burbank, California, has sculpted professionally for film, theme parks, toys and collectibles for 30 years.

After Trump was elected, Williams found himself sculpting Trump in order to deal with his emotions.

“I sculpted him NSFW to make it clear that I sculpted the entire figure and did not simply sculpt a head on an existing toy body”, Williams explained. “And I wanted to be a bit insulting. Tiny hands you know”.

And a disturbingly visible penis. A wee pecker at that.

[Note: For those who do not know, NSFW is ‘Not Safe For Work’ – usually seen in the subject line of an email message, indicating that the contents of the message are sexual, or rude, or something that is not suitable to be seen at the workplace].

The 4.75-inch tall and 4-inch wide toy also comes with a little Android cell phone in hand so President Troll is always Twitter ready.

After Williams created a sample of his Trump troll doll, he posted a photo on Facebook and discovered that so many of his friends wanted one that he decided to start a Kickstarter campaign to cover the manufacturing of so many figures.

You can actually preorder one on Kickstarter for just $25.

At the moment, the dolls are only available for preorder, being that Williams wants to find a quality factory to make them. He hopes the dolls will begin being made and distributed in the next few months, but it could take up to a year.

Monday, February 20, 2017

Malaysians are already familiar with the uniquely Malaysian "Mat Rempit" culture involving young people racing on their motorcycles at daredevil speed and engaging in "superman stunts" – usually at night and more so, during weekends.

The police must have seized thousands of motorbikes all these years in the hope that such action would be a deterrent – but the menace goes on unabated.

And now we are seeing another road menace that has clearly manifested itself in an incident involving a car and a posse of cyclists.

On Saturday, a boisterous pack of 30 to 40 teenagers, aged 13 to 17 years, on bicycles were believed to have obstructed Jalan Lingkaran Dalam and other adjacent roads in Johor Baru, Johore – before being mowed down by a car.

The driver was a 22-year-old woman who supposedly failed to brake in time.

Eight youngsters were killed on the spot and eight others were injured, two critically in the 3 AM incident.

Videos showing riders on modified bicycles dubbed basikalnyamuk (mosquito bicycles) went viral among WhatsApp groups shortly after the accident and they are bone-chilling to say the least.

In one of the said videos, cyclists were seen riding in the middle of a city road engaging in acrobatic exploits – and being completely oblivious to the dangers to themselves and other road users.

Malaysia has too many daredevils who don’t value life. Must it be only the Malays who have a death wish? Liquid Gold Advanced Toastmasters' upcoming 'Voice" workshop on February 25, 2017 is sold out!

I was in Bangsar this evening to attend the KL Advanced Toastmasters meeting. I delivered my CC #7 Research Your Topic speech titled "The Real Truth".

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Playboy on Monday had tweeted a photo of its March/April 2017 cover accompanied by the hashtag #NakedIsNormal.

The 63-year-old magazine has decided to bring nude photos back, in a reversal of its 2015 announcement that it would not feature naked women in print.

Cooper Hefner, Playboy’s chief creative officer said it "was a mistake" to remove nudity from the magazine in a statement on February 13, 2017.

Hooper, the son of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, added: "Nudity was never the problem because nudity isn't a problem. Today we're taking our identity back and reclaiming who we are".

The magazine ceased showing images of unclothed maidens claiming the era of printed erotica was over. I believe it was more because of competition from the Internet where anything goes when it comes to sex. The cover features March Playmate Elizabeth Elam looking natural, the cover headline reads "Naked Is Normal", and the Playboy Interview is with Scarlett Johansson, 2016’s top-grossing actor who pulled in $1.2 billion in global ticket sales. The other nude layouts throughout the magazine are somewhere between classy and, well, sweet.
Gone was the greased up and surgically enhanced Playmate of yesteryear. We now see the twenty-first century feminist next door.
Playboy was raunchy, now Playboy is risqué.
Liquid Gold Advanced Toastmasters Club had their regular meeting on Friday at Ben’s in Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. Some pics:

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

China is still viewed with some suspicion by some countries. And in one country, it is even viewed as an adversary.

Donald Trump (left), for one, sees the country as being responsible for his country’s ills.
It is regrettable that Trump looks at China through distorted lenses.

He forgets America has become very dependent on China, which is now the country’s third largest and fastest-growing export market. And, as the owner of over $1.25 trillion in Treasuries and other dollar-based assets, China also plays an all-important role in funding America’s persistent budget deficits – in effect, lending much of its surplus savings to the latter – it is already grievously irresponsible in saving enough to support its own economy.

Thankfully, another American, Stephen Roach thinks otherwise.

On December 14, 2016 at a talk organized by the think tank Center for China and Globalization in Beijing, China, he had insisted it is vital for the world economy that China continues to grow solidly in 2017. Simply because China powers the world economy.

The economist (right) who is a senior fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University and a former chairperson at Morgan Stanley Asia warned that should there be a dramatic slowdown in China, there would be a period of significant weakness we have not seen at any period since the end of World War II.

He had argued that world annual growth between 1980 and 2016 would have been just 2.7 percent – almost 25 percent less than the actual growth of 3.5 percent – without China growing at 9.7 percent during this period.

Roach also believes it is timely for China to demonstrate leadership during this period of uncertainty. More so, when the US of A which is the largest national economy in the world, is seen to be retreating under Trump.

Uncertainty because there has been a lot of push-back against globalization. That is what Brexit is all about. That is what the ascendancy of Trump is all about.

As China Daily sees it, China is the economic savior and a guarantor of continued stability of the world. Indisputably so.

No matter what Trump thinks of China, China is changing the world!
China is already on lift-off mode! And there's no stopping China!

For three hours on Tuesday evening, I was on Level 3A in Block 2 at Menara VSQ @ PJ City Center. This was the venue for the Taman Indrahana Toastmasters Club and it was a Valentine's Day themed meeting.

And so, each of us received a single rose made from a pandan(Pandanus amaryllifolius) leaf.

Anyway, Vice President Education Kimberley Yeoh was kind to have offered me a speaking slot and which I gratefully accepted. Therefore, I presented a CC #10 speech titled “The Kite Flyer” – this being my project speech #530 and my CC Round #41. For your info, I completed this particular Competent Communication manual in just twenty-five days.Better still, I was voted Best Speaker. Well-deserved, I'm sure!

I am happy to report that this CC represents my eighteenth educational award I have earned in this 2016-2017 term.